Happy Warhammer Day!
We have a special surprise on this most Warhammer-y of days — The Enemy Without - A Deathwatch Vignette. Watch it for free now, on Warhammer TV:
This animated vignette comes courtesy of our friends at Bandai Namco Filmworks, and the talented team over at SAFEHOUSE, who were all keen to help us celebrate Warhammer Day 2024.
Bandai Namco Filmworks are no strangers to Warhammer and their group company Bandai makes some of the most incredible officially licensed Warhammer stuff out there. In fact, many of you will already have amazing Bandai action figures and chibis adorning your cabinets, shelves and desks.
Bandai Namco Filmworks, have gone one-further here, unleashing a short, action-packed vignette that captures the gothic atmosphere of Warhammer 40,000 and the uncompromising brutality of Space Marines in combat.
The team behind this vignette was packed with Warhammer fans who harnessed their passion for the setting to create an authentic slice of grim darkness. Here’s what they had to say:
Warning! there are spoilers here if you have not yet watched the vignette - so best go do that now.
The director (and looong time Warhammer fan), Erasmus Brosdau explained where he drew his inspiration for the piece:
“I love reading the codexes and the books, which are often illustrated with fantastic artworks. This sparks my inspiration and makes me imagine the epic stories, conspiracies and the dark atmosphere in my head. This inspiration motivated me to bring these emotions onto the screen and to capture those moments from all the great stories.
Erasmus called out one particular shot as his favourite - the moment that the Deathwatch’s quarry reveals itself.
“...when the Necron Skorpekh Lord comes out of the wall and starts shooting the enmitic annihilator. While I went for a slow pacing for the intro, this is where the fast action kicks in. The audio design also hits really hard with the explosions and the blocking to underline how powerful everything is in this universe. My idea was really to show that it’s no big deal for the Deathwatch to defeat regular Necrons, but when the Skorpekh Lord appears… this is a challenge.”
The score throughout the episode is dripping in gothic tension. Composer Wilbert Roget, II laid out some of the unique challenges of creating music for the setting:
“The universe of Warhammer 40K is remarkably dark, more so than any other setting I’ve ever scored in my career. My first creative decision was that the harmonic language needed to reflect these profoundly militaristic societies, with clear limits on the way that subjects such as “heroism” would be portrayed in the orchestration. Despite this, I still wanted the essence of a melody to weave throughout the piece, hummable and anthemic as though it were a battle hymn that could have existed in the universe. It was an interesting challenge to marry these two extremes in the score!”
“I have tremendous respect for the brilliantly-conceived setting of 40K, which has spawned so many video games, pieces of music, books, and other media throughout the years. And equally inspiring is the passion and creativity of the players of both the tabletop and video games. It’s been an honour to have the opportunity to contribute to the franchise with this score!”
As proud commander of several Warhammer 40,000 armies, producer Hiroaki Yura was already intimately familiar with the setting. He was extra keen to make this vignette one fans would love:
“Balancing the respect to the lore, the expectation of the fans and what we want to do as artists is always a difficult challenge. We love the miniatures and the game but how do we make it feel real and convincing? What would ceramite really look like? What do Necrons look like up-close and what kind of sounds do they emit when they die? These are the hard but fun challenges we faced during production.
I’ve been collecting and playing Warhammer since I was 10, starting with the First Edition Rogue Trader. As portrayed on the cover, there’s something about Space Marines (in this case, Crimson Fists) making last stands, fighting to the death, and defending something they value more than their own lives. I guess it might be because of my Japanese heritage — the concept of Bushido, or death before dishonour, has always struck a chord with me.”
You can see a selection of Hiroaki’s Warhammer miniatures here — Grey Knights, Salamanders and his latest project, Adeptus Custodes.
You can watch The Enemy Without: A Deathwatch Vignette for free, now - over on Warhammer TV, the same place Warhammer+ subscribers can enjoy the full catalogue of official Warhammer animations.
PS: On the subject of the Deathwatch.
Lots of you have gotten in touch over the last few weeks with your thoughts on the way that Deathwatch Kill Teams now work in games of Warhammer 40,000. Ok, we hear you - a couple of squads is not enough, you want to mobilise the might of a full Watch Fortress!
While such deployments are rare in the 41st Millennium, they are not unknown, and the Ordo Xenos (and the Warhammer Studio, for that matter) is not deaf to the many calls for aid.
So we can confirm today that, in December, we’ll be releasing a digital update with more options to take your Deathwatch army to the field and lay low the alien menace. Watch this space....
